I realized that the install part calls /usr/lib/portage/bin/install.py if in a makefile "install" is specified instead of "/usr/bin/install".

This however seems to vastly slow down the installation part at a system, where I do boot from (and therefore install to an external USB 2.0 drive, especially for packages with a lot of installation files like pingus and phpmyadmin.

Now I'm wondering if something was change in the way portage handles the installation -or- if my external hard disk is dying -or- if the call of the python does now cost much more than in former times ?